Verse 1.1.10

Bengali text, Devanagari and Unicode transliteration of verse 1.1.10:

এতেকে করিল আগে ভক্তের বন্দন অতএব আছে কার্য সিদ্ধির লক্ষণ ॥ ১০ ॥

एतेके करिल आगे भक्तेर वन्दन अतएव आछे कार्य सिद्धिर लक्षण ॥ १० ॥

eteke karila āge bhaktera vandana ataeva āche kārya siddhira lakṣaṇa || 10 ||

eteke karila age bhaktera vandana ataeva ache karya siddhira laksana (10)

English translation:

(10) I have therefore offered my prayers first to the devotees, as this is the secret for attaining perfection.

Commentary: Gauḍīya-bhāṣya by Śrīla Bhaktisiddhānta Sarasvatī Ṭhākura:

In the Ādi Purāṇa, it is stated:

ye me bhakta-janāḥ pārtha na me bhaktāś ca te janāḥ mad bhaktānāṃ ca ye bhaktās te me bhaktatamāḥ matāḥ

“My dear Pārtha, those who claim to be My devotees are not My devotees, but those who claim to be devotees of My devotees are actually My devotees.” Also in the Śrīmad Bhāgavatam (3.17.2) it is said:

durāpā hy alpa-tapasaḥ sevā vaikuṇṭha-vartmasu yatropagīyate nityaṃ deva-devo janārdanaḥ

“Persons whose austerity is meager can hardly obtain the service of the pure devotees who are progressing on the path back to the kingdom of Godhead, the Vaikuṇṭhas. Pure devotees engage one hundred percent in glorifying the Supreme Lord, who is the Lord of the demigods and the controller of all living entities.” In the Padma Purāṇa, Uttara-khaṇḍa, it is stated:

arcayitvā tu govindaṃ tadīyān nārcayet tu yaḥ na sa bhāgavato jñeyaḥ kevalaṃ dāmbhikaḥ smṛtaḥ tasmād sarva-prayatnena vaiṣṇavān pūjayet sadā

sarvaṃ tarati duḥkhaughaṃ mahābhāgavatārcanāt

“One who performs worship of Lord Govinda but fails to worship His devotees should be understood to be not a devotee of the Lord but simply a victim of false pride. One should always worship the Vaiṣṇavas by all means, for by worshiping the great devotees one is freed from all miseries.” In this way various other statements glorifying the worship of pure devotees are found in the scriptures.

The word kārya-siddhi is explained by Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa in his Govinda-bhāṣya commentary on the Vedānta-sūtras (3.3.51), wherein he quotes from the Śāṇḍilya-smṛti as follows:

siddhir bhavati vā neti saṃśayo ‘cyuta sevinām niḥsaṃśayas tu tad bhakta paricaryāratātmanām kevalaṃ bhagavat-pāda- sevayā vimalaṃ manaḥ na jāyate yathā nityaṃ tad bhakta-caraṇārcanāt

“One may doubt whether the servant of the Supreme Personality of Godhead will attain perfection, but there is absolutely no doubt that those who are attached to serving His devotees will attain perfection. One’s mind is not as fully purified by serving the lotus feet of the Supreme Lord as it is by serving the feet of His devotees.”

Śrīla Kavirāja Gosvāmī has written in the Caitanya-caritāmṛta (Ādi 1.20- 21) as follows: “In the beginning of this narration, simply by remembering the spiritual master, the devotees of the Lord, and the Personality of Godhead, I have invoked their benedictions. Such remembrance destroys all difficulties and very easily enables one to fulfill his own desires.”